"I’d say the technology is beginning to gain traction with some ‘early adopters’ but is yet to hit the mainstream," Chief Executive Kevin Scrimshaw said. “There’s certainly a lot of ‘curiosity’ around how drones might be able to benefit farmers, but few have reached a level of 'reliance' on the technology to the point where it is completely replacing traditional methods of monitoring crop health."
Mr Scrimshaw says drones themselves do very little, other than capture imagery and data, and it is the software systems that process this captured data that actually make the difference. The technology can help plan crop irrigation and rotation strategies, with real data, instead of historical data. As well it can monitor crop health and identify issues that can lead to yield decline.
"I see a future where different types of drones interact with each other to the extent that we have ‘Doctor’ drones that diagnose problems and prescribe therapies and ‘Nurse’ drones that deliver those therapies, without human interference or interaction,” he said. “With tractor drones having been around for years now, it won’t be long before farmers become some of our biggest users of automated technology, managing crops from a computer dashboard, rather than looking over the dashboard of their Toyota Hilux or John Deere tractor."
There are a few drones that are set to be aimed at farmers directly. The DJI Agras MG-1 was announced in January 2016, but is still yet to be released, while Yamaha have one that resembles a helicopter. But this is not available for outright purchase by farmers and is only available through a service level agreement with the manufacturer and its franchise operators. In recent months there have been a flurry of software programs, or “Apps” released to market that have been designed to make use of the images captured by a drone and turn them into “meaningful, actionable data”.
National Drones say while the devices might seem expensive to justify purchasing outright, there are other cost effective options available to take advantage of the technology.
"A farmer is unlikely to need to use a drone every day or even every week,” Mr Scrimshaw said. “2-3 times per growing season is probably the maximum use for a drone on a single farm. Farmers should consider outsourcing to a company like National Drones to conduct a 2-3 times per growing season survey as an economical alternative to owning their own drone and subscribing to one of the many agricultural analytics software services listed above."
Mr Scrimshaw also warns farmers who operate their own drones to be careful of hazards, especially if they are inexperienced operators.
"Birds can also be a pest to drone operators," he said. "Particularly in Spring, birds become very territorial and it takes sharp skills to avoid conflict with avian life forms during the mating season. For this reason also it is probably worth outsourcing this particular function to a licensed, insured, experienced operator who is practiced at avoiding the instinctive antagonism of feathered predators."
